D1OSPYRUS. 



one bearing 2 anthers ; anthers subulate, fixed by the base. 

 Style 4-cleft, sometimes 2-parted, often trifid. Fruit succulent, 

 globose, 8-celled, with the permanent calyx at the base. Seeds 

 solitary, compressed. 



797. D. melanoxylon Eoxb. corom. i. 36. t. 46. Willd. iv. 1 109. 

 Roxb.fi. ind. ii. 531. Mountainous woods of Ceylon, Malabar, 

 Coromandel, and other parts of India. (Ebony Tree.) 



Trunk tolerably straight in large trees, from 20 to 25 feet to the 

 branches, and about 8 or 10 in circumference. Bark scabrous, or 

 deeply cracked, somewhat spongy, colour a mixture of grey and black, 

 in irregular strata. Branches very irregular, numerous, rigid, forming a 

 large spreading shady head : young shoots very downy. Leaves nearly 

 opposite, short petioled, oblong, entire, obtuse, when young very downy, 

 when old pretty smooth ; about 4 inches long, and 1^ broad. Stipules 

 0. Male peduncles axillary, single, short, bearing 3 or 4 small whitish 

 flowers, supported by short bowing pedicels. Bractes a small one at 

 the insertion of each pedicel, and 1 or 2, still smaller pressing the calyx. 

 Calyx and corolla as in the genus. Filaments generally 12 or 13, 

 short, inserted into a receptacle. Anthers linear, erect. Ovary 0. 

 Hermaphrodite flowers rather larger than the male, axillary, single, 

 nearly sessile. Bractes, a small one pressing the calyx. Calyx always 

 5-cleft, downy. Corolla 5-cleft. Filaments about 10, short, inserted 

 into a receptacle between the ovary and flower. Anthers small, seemingly 

 sterile. Styles 3, nearly erect; stigma bifid. Berry round, of the 

 size of a small apple, yellow, pulpy. Seeds as many as 8, immersed in 

 the pulp, kidney-shaped, sharp on the inner straight edge. Roxburgh. 

 The Ebony tree is valuable, not only on account of its wood, but for 

 the sake of its bark which is astringent, and mixed with pepper is given 

 for the dysentery by the native doctors of India. 



798. D. virginiana Linn. sp. pi. 1510. Mill. diet. ic. 1. 126. 

 Willd. iv. 1107. United States. 



A large tree. Leaves ovate, rather blunt, shining, smooth, netted, 

 with downy stalks. Leafbuds smooth. Bark said to be a powerful 

 astringent and febrifuge. 



STYRACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 227. 



STYRAX, 



Calyx rather campanulate, nearly entire or ^-toothed. Co- 

 rolla campanulate at the base, deeply 3-7-cleft. Stamens 6-16, 

 389 c c 3 



